Wireless communication systems are well known in the art. In general, such systems comprise wireless communication stations which transmit and receive wireless signals between each other. One type of a wireless system known as a WLAN system enables a WLAN wireless host station (WSTA) equipped with a radio transceiver on e.g. a motherboard of the station or a network interface (NIC), frequently as a plug in device, to access an access point of the WLAN system. An access point of a WLAN system is generally a small-size base station which is built according to the IEEE 802.11 standard. The wireless service area of a WLAN access point is often restricted to a geographical area referred to as a hotspot or a small office home office (soho) because the communication range is short or moderate compared to the radio range provided by a base station of a cellular network.
In a WLAN system, WSTAs can operate in an infrastructure mode and/or an independent mode (or ad-hoc mode). In the infrastructure mode, WSTAs conduct communications via the access point after that the WSTAs have associated with the access point (AP). Such a configuration is also known as a Basic Service Set (BSS) mode of operation. It should be noted that a connection between two WSTAs via an AP means that a data frame is transmitted over the wireless channel twice i.e. from the first WSTA to the AP and from the AP to the second WSTA.
In contrast to the infrastructure mode, a WSTA can directly connect to another WSTA without involvement of an AP. This mode of operation is called the independent mode or ad-hoc mode or peer-to-peer mode or independent BSS (IBSS) mode. In this case, a data frame is transmitted over the wireless channel only once i.e. directly from one WSTA to another WSTA without AP involvement, thereby achieving an efficient utilization of the available bandwidth.
The IBSS mode of operation is generally used when there is a need for two or more computing systems in general to exchange data and communication with external world over Internet is not required. This mode of operation can be viewed as more appropriate for a wireless HID (human interface device) that interact with a computing system. An example of a wireless HID is a wireless computer mouse, a wireless keyboard, a wireless headset, a wireless microphone etc. A HID can thus be viewed as a type of device (e.g. a computing device) that is capable in interacting directly with, and most often takes input from, humans and may deliver output to humans.
The radio frequency (RF) communication between a wireless HID device and a WSTA may follow a known standard like Bluetooth, Zigbee and others. A wireless HID with built-in Bluetooth (or Zigbee) transceiver is very popular among the HID industry because such standard offers compatibility among suppliers, low power consumption, adequate throughput data transmission, low cost etc.
However with the advancement in silicon technology and the evolution of WLAN (e.g. Wi-Fi) protocols that address e.g. the power consumption issues, the Wi-Fi technology gains ground in short range wireless communication applications. This means that wireless HIDs based on IEEE 802.11 standard technology need to support a subset of Wi-Fi client functionality in order to e.g. save hardware and software resources etc. Such a wireless HID based on IEEE 802.11 standard can operate in a IBSS mode and thus can directly communicate, using Bluetooth or Zigbee, with a WSTA operating in a IBSS mode. The wireless HID can also operate in a BSS mode, meaning that it can communicate to the WSTA via the AP using the WLAN IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n etc.
However, a problem with a wireless HID without BSS capabilities is that it is not able to connect to a WSTA if the WSTA is already associated with an AP in BSS mode.
In prior art document US 2006/0104235 A1, it is described a method and an apparatus to overcome the above problem. In said prior art document, simultaneous communications in both IBSS and BSS modes is achieved by providing the WSTA with: one state-machine intended for controlling the WSTA in the BSS mode (i.e. infrastructure mode); another state-machine intended for controlling the WSTA in the IBSS mode (i.e. independent mode); and a mixed mode capable in transferring data information in the two modes simultaneously. This means that a HID without BSS capabilities is able to wirelessly connect to a WSTA even if the WSTA is associated with an AP in BSS mode provided that the WSTA supports the mixed-mode operation described above. In other words, a wireless HID can communicate with the WSTA using e.g. Bluetooth or Zigbee (i.e. IBSS mode) and the WSTA can simultaneously communicate and be associated with a AP (i.e. in BSS mode).
A drawback with the above described method and apparatus of the prior art is that the hardware and software complexity is inevitable because the WSTA has to include the above described state machines and the mixed mode means and software means capable in handling the processing of the simultaneous communications. A software upgrade of an existing WSTA (or existing computing system) is not enough to support simultaneous IBSS and BSS modes of operation. In other words, hardware and software changes are required in a WSTA in order to support IBSS and BSS modes. This also means that the power consumption of the WSTA increases since, as mentioned, it requires simultaneous support of IBSS and BSS modes. An increase in power consumption means shorter battery life.